Monday, January 25, 2010

Dinosaur skeleton takes long path to proper study

This is an interesting story about fossils, who owns them, and how they are treated. In this case, the skeleton of what may be a new raptor species, 70M years old, was dug up illegally in Montana on private land. The finder was arrested and the dinosaur went into the evidence room. It stayed there for two years before the case was over, and it was adjudged property of the landowners, who in turn donated it to science. There have been many disputes over fossils in the US, most famously in the "Tyrannosaurus Sue," case, and it's good to see this one ended well.

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